a good day

Today has been our first day without an agenda packed full of various trips and appointments, and we soaked it up. We slept in…until 7:30! Maybe all I needed to become a morning person was a trip around the world with a 14-hour time change 🙂

After breakfast, Matt took some time out to reflect in our room, and the girls and my mom and I played in her room while my mom also washed some of our laundry in the sink. We may break down and send some of it out to be washed in Guangzhou, but as much as we can get by with doing it ourselves (and not paying for it), we’re trying to do that!

Here’s a picture of my girls starting the day in matching outfits 🙂 Of course, being small children, both required clothing changes fairly quickly, so the matching outfits didn’t last long, but I enjoyed them while we had them!

CaiQun very much preferred to be with Matt most of the day yesterday, so he mostly kept her with him while we ran around to everywhere we needed to go. This morning she let me carry her down to breakfast, though, and feed her, and she laughed and played with me a bit during the meal. When Matt walked out of my mom’s room this morning to go next door, she cried momentarily – sweet and sad but also good! – but then seemed happy enough to sit on my lap and color a picture. We want to honor her desires – particularly when they involve being with one of us – but we also want to encourage her to begin to build a relationship with me, as I’ll be caring for her much more during the days when Matt goes back to work right after we return home.

Today seems to have been a good day for that 🙂 We took some walks up and down the hallway – mama, jie jie (big sister), and mei mei (little sister). CaiQun would walk part of the time and reach her arms up to me to be carried when she was tired of walking. When we got to the end of the hall, the girls would sit on some nice covered chairs and snack a bit, and then we’d head back toward our rooms. It was so nice not to have to be anywhere this morning and to have time to do those simple playtime things – taking walks, coloring pictures, playing with the baby doll and stacking cups, things like that. CaiQun began to voluntarily come over and park her little butt in my lap while we were playing and snacking – so sweet 🙂 Miranda found the bubbles I’d packed, so we got those out and opened them up – you should have seen the look on CaiQun’s face the first time a stream of bubbles went floating by! It was priceless 🙂

The girls really are doing well together. Most of their interactions are initiated by Miranda – CaiQun is generally content to play on her own or be with Matt or me, but if Miranda comes over to her, she’s amenable to that. Here they are napping together this afternoon 🙂 Miranda sleeps somewhat like a helicopter…legs going every direction throughout the night. Matt and I both scooted her around several times in the night last night, so we opted to put a pillow between the girls for naptime to keep Miranda’s legs away from CaiQun while they slept 🙂

We’ve been really blessed by my mom’s presence with us on this trip. We were pretty confident we could handle the trip and both girls on our own if we needed to but figured it would be nice if my mom were able to come with us. Truthfully, I’m not sure we’d be doing anywhere near as well if she weren’t here! She and Miranda have had a lot of fun playing together, and she’s just generally helpful with anything and everything going on.

CaiQun is letting out more and more smiles and laughter and revealing more and more of her personality. None of the referral or update pictures we have of her show her smile, so we are especially encouraged to be seeing it now! And our little girl seems to be a bit mischievous! Tonight at dinner she whipped one of her stacking cups across the table (and into Matt’s bowl of soup) and was incredibly pleased with herself. She also likes everything to be orderly – caps back on markers, markers lined up in the container, etc. She was not so thrilled about bath time, but we’ll see if she warms up to the idea over time. We’re so looking forward to seeing how she continues to emerge from her shell, getting to know the real little CaiQun in there!

And of course we’re enjoying our Miranda girl at the same time 🙂 She looks very serious in this photo, but I promise, she really is having a good time here, for the most part!

And we’re so thankful that CaiQun is letting us in more and more each day. Last night she did not want me anywhere near her as she was falling asleep, though she snuggled up with Matt in the night, but tonight she let me lie between her and Miranda and hold her hand until she fell asleep.

Good stuff, my friends 🙂 Tomorrow should be another low key day, so we’ll be continuing to have fun and build relationships. We’re blessed and thankful!

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Meet Alison

I'm Alison, wife to one great guy and mama to four precious kiddos. My days are spent loving and caring for those 5 and anyone else God brings into my path, and as I read books and explain math, wipe noses and change diapers, teach and pray, correct and celebrate, I also contemplate and share my thoughts in this space. I'm so honored that you're here!

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